School Profile

Leighton Park is set in a beautiful 60 acre park on the outskirts of Reading with access to excellent rail and road links and only 45 minutes’ drive from Heathrow Airport. Leighton Park is a happy, diverse community in which students live, learn and flourish as boarders or day students with inquisitive and questioning minds.

Leighton Park is renowned as a school that brings out the best in each and every one of its students. We aim to help every student achieve their full potential academically and personally. Academic success is undeniably important, but it is only one facet of the rounded education that young people need to equip them for a successful and fulfilled adult life. Every day, students encounter the core values that Quakerism espouses and emerge from Leighton Park as well-balanced, confident life-long learners, with their own strengths and talents and eager to contribute fully to society.

Leighton Park School was founded in 1890 by the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers) and today it is a community of many faiths and none, which continues to uphold the Quaker values of honesty, integrity, simplicity, equality, peace, sustainability and respect. We seek to create a community of tolerance and understanding within which a balance between discipline, especially self-discipline, freedom and exploration is maintained. It is the ideal environment in which to think, reflect and learn. Our students display a maturity which is distinctive because they are treated with respect and encouraged to develop their independence. They experience a purposeful academic environment, but also have enormous fun, and are prepared for life beyond school through a curriculum and approach to teaching and learning which acknowledges that we live in a rapidly changing world.

The school encompasses buildings from both the 19th and 20th century and maintains excellent facilities including a science and technology centre, drama studio, digital recording studio, well equipped ICT suites, concert hall, floodlit all-weather pitches and a heated indoor swimming pool.

We have approximately 490 students and offer day, weekly, flexi and full boarding options in one of five mixed boarding houses. Entry to the school is primarily at Years 7 - 9 and Sixth Form although other entry points are possible, subject to availability.

Our high calibre and dedicated teachers draw the very best out of every student. They relish selecting the best mix of traditional and modern teaching methods in order to boost each student’s confidence and love of learning, and they give generously of their time, offering individual help when appropriate. The academic curriculum emphasises flexibility and individual choice so that every student can study the right combination of subjects.

High academic standards, a richly diverse programme of community-focused activities, together with an emphasis on the importance of developing a sound moral compass in all our students, are the hallmark of an education at Leighton Park.

32% of pupils in HMC schools across the UK received help with their fees in 2015/16 totalling £442 million in assistance....that's over £1.2m per day. £212 million of this was in the form of means-tested bursaries.

79% of HMC schools in the UK and Ireland are co-educational, 13% are boys' only and 8% are girls' only schools. 60% offer boarding in some form.

Pupils in HMC schools play on average between 5 and 6 hours of sports and games a week in over 40 different sports - double the amount played by pupils in state schools. 36 of the medals won by Team GB at Rio 2016 were by athletes educated at HMC schools.